Three Times She Fell and One Time She Tripped
by onelastecho
Summary: Eponine never really understood when Shinonome became such a natural part of her life, but she fell every time. Shinonome(Shiro)xEpinine(Nina) Japanese names used.


It's a brand new year, and I've been neglecting writing as of late for other, really less important things, but I hope that, this year, I'll be able to work past silly things like writer's block and no ideas. So, here's my first shot of it. I hope you enjoy! I will captain this ship alone.

* * *

The first time came as an awed silence, wide eyes and gawking at the utter ridiculousness at it all. She hadn't noticed him, hadn't seen him come up, stand beside her in the amphitheater, and hadn't noticed the way he beamed at her as she muttered words and paradises to herself while the actors made their story on stage. But, there he was, hair wild and tied behind a braided headband, eyes glorious and auburn as he looked at her.

"Sh-Shinonome!" she squeaked. Sad, pathetic, she couldn't keep eye contact and she couldn't say his name. Her shoulders hunched as she found a very particular piece of dirt on the ground to study.

"I thought you hadn't noticed me," he laughed, heartily, and his hands went firm on his hips. "Sure enough, though, the way you're standing there grinning and talking."

"W-was I?" she let out a bout of nervous laughter.

"Yeah, you were pretty into it," around them, there was applause erupting. Suddenly, Eponine went stiff again, a string of curses falling from her mouth. The play was over, she'd missed the ending, the best part.

"I guess so," she sighed, huffing as her arms crossed.

Shinonome's smile only, somehow, seemed to brighten. Eponine wondered if he might blot out the sun with all those perfectly white teeth and radiating happiness.

"It was pretty intense. Especially that fight scene there at the end."

Eponine took pause, to stare, again, and wondered for the longest time what the angle was. Shinonome, for all intents and purposes, was a prince. And he certainly acted like one, with his nobility and strength. Her parentage, for all it mattered, meant little to her. Her claim to any throne was almost laughable, a thief for a father and a heartless dragon shifter for a mother. Maybe it was in there, some noble royal blood in their veins that made her title real, but it seemed unfitting, unfair. There was no reason for a real born again prince to ever look at her with bright and shining eyes. Not like that.

"It was pretty fantastic," yet, she found herself falling into the conversation. Her shoulders eased, relaxed, and she even cracked a smile. Something on Shinonome's face fell when she smiled, the curve of her lips something unique.

"But," she perked up. They had already started walking away from the theater, no real destination in mind. "I loved the scene where their bonds were tested! When he was suspected of betrayal and—and the spy work," her voice god louder.

"That was a great scene—"

"The main character never lost faith!" she interrupted, "oh, it was love, if I've ever seen it."

"Ah, love?" Shinonome asked, face scrunching up.

Eponine stopped in her tracks, her eyes immediately darting up to meet his. Oh, he was impossibly tall compared to her, but his eyes were auburn and hers were pink. Surely, there was a middle ground. She searched for any hint of disgust, for concern, the smallest bit of thought which might make him turn tail and run from a girl too caught up in fantastical dreams.

"Oh—uh, I mean, you know," she was laughing again, nervously, and her shoulders squeezed together.

Shinonome laughed as well, with her, like she meant her chuckles and the sweat running down her neck, "Can't say I do, but who's to say that matters? Intense friendship, well," he shrugged, that smile never dropping, not even as his sentence drifted off and they began walking again.

"I don't mean to ramble on about stuff like that," her voice was low, like she really needed to explain. She felt like she did, at least, the smallest bit of doubts telling her that smile was fake.

Shinonome shrugged, "Well, I don't get much of what you're saying. But, there's something to be said for—"

"Yeah, I'm sure, it's fine," another laugh, she was cursing herself.

Shinonome glanced down at her; she wondered how he could smile for so long without his cheeks hurting.

"I'd…love to see another one with you, I think you're interesting."

Eponine's eyes went wide, and her feet froze in place. Shinonome continued to walk, turning on his heel to pad along backwards as he waved.

"I'll see you back at camp!"

Eponine wanted to scream as her face ran red.

The second time came after a play he'd suggested, the third one, and his tastes were good. They were still in town, sitting at a bench surrounded by flowers all colors of the sunset and sky. Eponine was leaning back, legs swinging out in front of her, and her cheeks had never been more sore.

"After the fight scene—it was so intense," Eponine beamed. "He fought so hard to get away his friend, and—and in the end, he still went back for him."

Shinonome had been listening quietly as she rambled and went on about how she saw the play, friends torn across battle lines and family ties, and how one had tried so hard to deny what was there, but in the end, couldn't ever look away. Turned against his own family to protect his friend, and Eponine had nearly squealed.

"I think so too," he chuckled, and that stopped her words dry. She looked at him, eyes wide, and couldn't bring herself to smile at the shock of it all.

"You…think?" she wondered, like the words didn't make sense. Like the situation didn't make sense, and she began to question how she even began to talk to him at all.

"Thank you for coming to see the play with me," he chirped up instead, setting the topic aside in hopes he might ease some of Eponine's fears.

"You…seem to have good taste, is all, so how could I refuse," she leaned forward, sitting straight, and played at the hemline of her dress. Blue and grey, old and a bit stained, but Shinonome had never said anything. Not in his immaculate ways, but Eponine figured he washed twice a day with a mother like Oboro.

"Oh, is that all?" doubt in his voice, maybe. "I enjoy seeing them, with you, anyway," he laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck. "You always start to mutter to yourself these interesting little things."

"Oh god," she groaned, head dropping into her hands.

"No—no, not a bad thing," he urged, maybe too intensely, or maybe it was a cover as he slid closer and didn't want her to notice. "I don't always understand what you're talking about, but I think it's interesting. New insights—and you really seem to be enjoying yourself. I…like that the most," he muttered, admitted. Either way, it was a crime.

Eponine's shoulders tensed again as she muttered a curse, glancing at him from the corner of her eye, "Shinonome…" his name was so easy now.

He stopped short, his mouth gaping like a fish in water. Eponine could almost see the cogs turning in his brain as he fought off whatever demons were telling him to keep his mouth shut. Obviously, they were fighting a losing battle, but the ones telling him not to speak were winning the war.

"It's, uh, a nice distraction," he muttered, pulling back into himself.

Eponine noted the distance between them, how it had closed, but still he curled in with elbows on his knees and face in his hands.

"Yeah…distraction," she shrugged, picking off a string that had been tickling the side of her knee for too long.

"From the battle, I mean. And, sometimes I think about it. The battle, the stories we get told. It's like the play, or, could've been, I think," he closed his eyes. Now he was rambling, and nothing made sense. Eponine's silence only chastised him further, but he couldn't stay his curiosity, and looked at her regardless. Her eyes were wide again, pink like the sun setting away for the evening, from the world, and cheeks just as red.

"What…do you mean?" she wondered.

Shinonome sat straight again, thinking hard about everything she said about the play. How it might have been true, if it were them instead of a noble knight and his best friend. Maybe it was true anyway, and he found it didn't bother him, not when he thought about Eponine. She sat there, trying to curl unruly bangs behind her ear, tucked into her headband. Anything. There was something refined about the way her long red hair was braided but messy down along her shoulders anyway. Like she tried so hard to look a part she wasn't. Like her mother.

"Well… Hoshido and Nohr, working together? I hear it's never been like that. Your mother brought them together, for whatever we're facing now. This… Invisible Kingdom, I guess. But if that hadn't happened? Maybe we'd meet, become friends, and I'd find out who you were and try to stay away."

"Are you saying you'd turn against your own family for me?" she laughed weakly, trying to brush it off like some sad joke. Some way of tugging at her heart, the way it pained and beat in her chest. Some dying monster, she thought, and rolled her eyes at the continued silence.

"… I'm not sure," Shinonome admitted. He thought about Ryouma, how his father had tried so hard to make Shinonome into something he wasn't quite sure he was ready to be. He thought about how Oboro had always been there, a doting mother, more than happy to teach him to wield a spear better than how he'd learned alone in the Deep Realms. The thought made him shudder.

"We'll have to see, yeah?" Eponine perked up again, beaming this time, with all the confidence she could muster.

Shinonome smiled in return, "I like this," he said, "I definitely like this."

He stood up not a second later, and offered Eponine his hand. She took it without question, allowing herself to be pulled from her spot. Her feet landed fine, but something in her fell when she watched Shinonome smile at her. They walked from the town, together, and she chose to ignore how he'd never quite let go of her hand.

The third time was a blow to the face, a battle in another world, screaming and haunting echoes as some mad faced dragon hovered around them, and creatures poured out from shadows in the floor. It was never ending, a battle that stopped time as it continued, as it raged, and all around her, Eponine could see the will of man fading. She was panting, fingers shaking on the string of her bow, and her feet worked themselves as she moved backward, a better vantage point, a finer anything. Maybe even an escape. She'd lost her cape long ago, and was left in partially torn and tattered clothes. Her hair was a mess, a slice down her cheek that she was more than certain was going to scar, and perhaps wearing boots with heals was a decision she'd never truly thought about before now.

Her mother's words echoed through her head.

 _We can't fall now._

 _We can't fall now._

 _We won't fall now._

She breathed, raising her arms again, bow at the ready. She would aim, the whole world would stop, and her fingers went limp as something collided with her back in heavy movement. Eponine collapsed, her legs giving out beneath her, and she realized, in turn, how beaten she truly was. She was Eponine, daughter of a thief and wretched war queen. Her legs should've worked, she cursed, and watched across the field as Kanna struggled with hold of his sword in one hand and Soleil in the other. Friends was a funny notion, and she had laughed the day Kanna brought her home. Something more than friends.

"Ep…Eponine," a ravaged, shuttering gasp, and Eponine was brought back to the current, time snapping before her eyes. She knew that voice, that sweet turn of tongue as her name rolled off his lips.

"Shinonome!" she all but shrieked, pulling herself up on shaky arms and quivering knees. Armor was a dammed thing, she realized, as she watched the red stain across his clothes. Red and darker red, where his clothes had always been that shade.

Suddenly, something that same hue boiled up inside her, and she reached out for his spear, and left her bow on the ground in forgotten turmoil. Her knees knocked, and her thighs screamed, but she stood in front of him, at the ready, and faced the creature head on. She wasn't sure, at the end, if it had been her, a mysterious arrow that had finished the beast, only that it was vanished in smoke before she finally collapsed again, nearly to the floor, beside Shinonome.

"What—what did you do!?" she cradled his head, breathing heavily, and though she wanted to look for help, scream for it, her body froze to watch herself wipe the blood from his chin.

"You…what were you thinking?" he shot back, eyes closed in grimace at the pain. "Standing there so long…doing nothing. Had…to do something," he worked out.

Eponine gulped, "You saved me."

Like it was every day. Like this was normal.

Shinonome smiled, grasping at her and catching hold of her wrist against his side, "Something like that." He coughed again, and there was blood. Eponine's heart sunk and her stomach churned.

"No-we—I have to get you to safety—I," she swallowed something, shaking off his hand that she might squeeze it instead. No longer sure of who it was supposed to comfort.

"It'll be fine," he assured, and squeezed back. "Just, promise you'll take care of me, when we get out of here. Just keep smiling." His breathes were ragged, his breathing slow as his words.

Eponine nodded, "I will! Today, tomorrow, as long as you'll have me," her voice cracked in her throat as the tears welled up in her eyes.

Shinonome laughed quietly, "I'm…supposed to be the one proposing."

And Eponine realized she'd been helpless since the day she'd met him.

There was the fourth time, standing on that lush pasture, a hill overlooking what seemed like the world. Hydra beaten, bandages wrapped, and hearts settled. Shinonome was there, at her side, and she wondered just how long he'd been there. Wondered when it became normal, even familiar, that warmth on her arm. It tightened her chest, made her shoulders tense, but in a way that she was afraid to mess it up, even with his hand wound tightly around her own.

"I never told you, did I?" he suddenly asked, a smile on his face. There was something about watching his father shake hands with Marx, prince of Nohr, that brought him pride. That even stubbornness could die.

"Told me what?" Eponine asked.

"That your smile is lovely."

Her cheeks went red, and they watched in silence as a new alliance forged, and new friendships in its wake.

"You always shock me," she replied eventually, with fanfare died down and silence overlooking everyone. The weight of what was to come next was harrowing, and Eponine watched her mother squeeze arms around Leon just a little tighter than she ever had before. The goodbyes.

"I'm about to shock you again," he said, and surely, he didn't mean the way he slipped his hand away from hers. Surely, with how it made Eponine's body turn to aches. If this was meant to be their goodbye, she would wish it all away in books and poems. Forget Shinonome and whatever he'd done. But, he beckoned for her to follow, his finger waving in the air and a smile on his face.

She nodded, and walked, without hesitation, but trailed behind him in uncertainty. They approached the ring of nobles, as it were, and Eponine seemed to stand amongst them flawlessly now. Her mother now crowned queen of Valla, and perhaps her father was there too. She chose not to notice, it made her own title a bit less believable. A princess, as if she'd be anything else.

"Dad," Shinonome broke the wretched silence.

"Shinonome? What is it?" Ryouma had a smile on his face, but what was behind it, Eponine could never quite be sure. Shinonome had always interfered with her family, had somehow made a good impression on her impossible mother and her impossible standards, had somehow become Kanna's best friend, and somehow, even Zero had shrugged him off and looked the other way when his fingers lingered too long between Eponine's. But she had never much cared for the way of truly royalty, where they acted as noble as they looked, and did not speak much to Ryouma or his wife.

And still, their eyes met, accusatory, perhaps, as Shinonome breathed like it was his last.

"I'm not coming home."

Eponine's eyes widened.

"What do you mean?" Ryouma asked.

"I want to stay in Valla… With Eponine," he only moved to the side an inch, or so, miniscule, and reached back to pull Eponine to his side. Even as she ducked her face, shoulders hunched, she could not hide her smile, nor the way her face turned pink.

That time, she didn't just fall, she tripped.


End file.
